Last year, in April, I reviewed Omar's Fire In The Brain mixtape. This mixtape was divided into two tapes, and I only heard the first one. Seeing as Omar Santana has been quite active on social media lately, I thought I might give the old Soundcloud a browse. And guess what? I found the second mixtape! Obviously the one place I had to go to was magpie303's page. If you want to visit the ultimate Hardcore page on Soundcloud, his page is the best place to go to. With nearly 6 and a half thousands records (mostly mixes), he gives us our daily Hardcore injection, which we all need. And sometimes he finds these hidden gems, ones I've not even heard or seen before, like Omar's mixtape.
If truth be told, I was always into tapes, but only home made ones. I think I only ever had about 5-10 tapes pre-recorded. For example, this mixtape was released around 1997, I was only 13, and wasn't making much money. Only money gained from delivering newspapers, and boy, that was shit. The internet did exist, but not to me. I had to rely on our local music store, and they weren't into Hardcore tapes. They focussed on CDs mostly, so that's where my money went to. And we can complain about everything, but CD quality always wins over cassette quality. Always. How endearing the crackling noise might sound, and rewinding the tape with a pencil can be quite intoxicating, but CD quality was always better. So maybe that's why tapes were never in my eye of sight.
But, in a weird way, I do hate myself for not investing any pennies into mixtapes. Still wouldn't have a clue how I would retrieve them back in the mid 90s. Again, it wasn't widely available as such, and I wasn't even allowed to have anything Hardcore related in our house: my mum banned the music from our house. Literally throw albums away, if she knew it was 'Thunderdome'-ish. So I was always fucked, had to hide them everywhere. But mum being mum, she always found them. So I became inventive: I bought albums that looked like normal albums, and didn't contain the word 'Thunderdome' on the cover. Funnily enough, my first compilation was purchased by my mum, and was Mysteryland 1994. And guess what the first disc was called? 'Thunderdome'. But she didn't know. A sneaky reminder of how I had to deal with parents who hated it.
Anyway, I am ranting on and on. I nearly forgot what I was talking about. Omar Santana and his mixtape. I did appreciate his Hardcore stuff during the heydays of Hardcore. The 'Heroes Of Hardcore' compilation had an American version of it, and I did play that over and over. Delirium, Rob Gee, and Omar Santana. As far as I can remember that being the only Omar Santana mix CD I have ever owned. Don't know why I've never bought anything else. So many questions, no answers given.
The mixtape! Yeah, let's focus on that. magpie303 has found this obscure tape, and uploaded it two years ago. I already reviewed the first tape, now it's time for the second tape. And I'm guessing you want to see the tracklist, right?
01. The Stunned Guys - Beats Time
02. Tellurian - Hardcore Junkies
03. Wasting Program - Bring That Shit Back
04. Chosen Few - Chosen Paradise
05. Cybernators - Ridiculous Lyrics (Ruffex Remix By Ectomorph & Myrmidon)
06. Insane - Kiss My Ass
07. Paradox - My DJ....Cutz
08. French Connection - French Connection
09. DJ Weirdo & DJ Sim - Kick This Muthaf#@ka (DJ Jordens Remix)
10. Public Domain - So Get Up (Dr. Phil's Mix)
11. Jack Lucifer - 95 Knights (Don't Fear The Darkness)
12. Queens Boro Crew - The Paradox
13. Jack Lucifer - After All Wars
14. Liza N' Eliaz & Dano - Pavlow
15. The New York Terrorist - Hellbound Terror
16. Manga Corps - The Hunter
17. Rave Creator - A New Mind
18. The New York Terrorist - The Beast
19. Oh Bonic - Respeck Da Tec
20. Omar Santana - Speed Freak
21. Predator - I'm Trippin'
Wow. So many forgotten anthems. Obviously the well known anthems are in here too, but there's shitloads of unknown or forgotten anthems in here too. Maybe I have heard them before, but never clocked them? But also during its heyday, I wasn't too much into the extreme stuff, the hard hard stuff. I did like it, but never paid too much attention to it. Yes, I was more into the happy side of Hardcore. Please forgive me.
But anyway, the mix. Or in this case, the mixtape. Released nearly 23 years ago. Still sounds fresh. And it's lit. But also in a weird way, not layered as you would expect it? Let me explain myself: a 'normal' mix would start off slow, and go mental towards the end. The BPMs would go up and up, but never start 'slow', go hard halfway through, go slow again after, go hard, go soft, etc. You catch my drift. Just check it around the 40 minute mark. You will understand what I'm saying.
I did like this mixtape a lot. Unconventional. Different. In a strange way, it was exactly what I was expecting from mister Santana. But not a lot of his own productions in here, that's a bummer. Would have appreciated if more of his own stuff was in here. Or maybe he used an alias of his own that I'm not familiar with.
Go and enjoy this obscure mixtape. Let the music sink in. Get this down you, especially now. Lockdown has given us the opportunity to stay indoors, and have the speakers do the talking. Maybe the layout of the tracks might not appeal to you, but certainly the music will.
The best track, for me, has to be 'So Get Up'. Public Domain were so awesome.
Check this out. And check out magpie's channel too. It's fucking awesome.
DJ: Omar Santana
Genre/Style: Hardcore, Gabber, Terror
Mixtape Info: Fire In The Brain - Tape 2
Length Mixtape: 00:58:42
Tracks: 21 (twenty-one)
Download/Listen (via Soundcloud): LISTEN HERE
File Type: unknown
File Size: unknown
Audio: Mono/Stereo
Sample Rate: unknown
More Information: Omar Santana - Facebook Page
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